Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic cameras electronic imaging, fluid flow microscopes, and image processing, and in particular to how these may be combined in various ways to create a small low-power inexpensive flow microscope element for applications in environmental remote telemetry sensing, bioreactor monitoring, and other applications.
The present invention pertains to tomography and 3D imaging, and more specifically to optical tomography for microscopy, cell cytometry, microplate array instrumentation, and other applications.
Background
Powerful new sensor capabilities and telemetry costs are radically evolving and have been integrated into environmental and contamination monitoring systems and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as described in related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/817,074 filed on Jun. 16, 2010. Still-image, video, and audio field sensors can provide very useful environmental information as argued therein. Among the more useful possible applications for still-image and video is an inexpensive submersible flow microscope that can be used to visually monitor micro-organism and other microscopic affairs in flowing or standing surface water (among other uses). Such a flow microscope would need to be physically small, sturdy, low-energy consuming, easy to use, inexpensive, and remotely controllable by electrical or data signals. Once crafted, the resulting technology can be used as a laboratory instrument, for example as can be used in conjunction with a bioreactor.
To facilitate the above goals, a number of technology developments and particulars of possible flow microscope optical arrangements can be leveraged. In particular, image sensing elements are decreasing in cost as they increase in resolution and decrease in sensor array area size. These trends, together with the small size of objects to be viewed (assuming the incoming fluid is adequately clear of pre-filtered) permit a (2-dimensional) “contact imaging” approach, not unlike the 1-dimensional scanning bar arrangements employed in contemporary fax machines. Additional technology additions provide a wider range of performance, features, and capabilities, including opportunities for optical microscopic tomography. Additional advancements in power management electronics and image processing facilitate support other aforementioned needs of a flow microscope for environmental monitoring applications.
Tomography refers to imaging by sections or sectioning, through the use of any kind of penetrating wave, such as x-rays as in computer tomography, gamma rays, radio-frequency waves, electron-positron annihilation, electrons, ions, magnetic particles, etc. Optical tomography is a form of computed tomography that creates a digital volumetric model of an object by reconstructing images made from light transmitted and scattered through an object. Optical tomography relies on the object under study being at least partially transparent. The present invention presents applications and opportunities in optical tomography which have remained largely unexplored and undeveloped. Light emitting diodes, or LEDs, have both light emitting and sensing properties. With the abundance of high and low performance LEDs at an economical price, leveraging the properties of LEDS, organic LEDs (OLEDs), etc., is an important reason to consider such an invention. For example, OLEDs arrays are already in wide use in many types of electronic displays and they can be fabricated via printed electronics on a variety of surfaces such as glass, mylar, plastics, paper, etc. Leveraging some of the properties of such materials, LED arrays can be readily bent, printed on curved surfaces, etc. Such properties create vast opportunities for 3-D imaging in areas such as microscopy, cell cytometry, microplate array instrumentation, and other applications.